Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Meeting Adm. Roebuck

Posted by Lieutenant Icarus Remington (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Meeting Adm. Roebuck

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Meeting Adm. Roebuck
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Starfleet Command, Earth.

Lt. jg. Remington stepped into the reception office of Adm. Roebuck with hand written file stuffed with papers under his arm.

This is it. There’s no going back after this. I’m either going to get the posting I want or the admiral will have me thrown in the brig, or worse yet, sent to the Wolverine. Rumor has it that troublemakers, people Command want to silence get sent to the Wolverine, and there’s two ways to get off the Wolverine-go AWOL or get killed. Neither of those two options were in his future plans.

He approached the reception desk in the outer office with a confident smile on his face.

The receptionist looked up and smiled. “Good morning, Lt. How can I help you?”

“I’m Lt. j.g Icarus Remington, here to see Adm. Roebuck,” he replied.

“I’m sorry, Lt. but I don’t see your name in his appointment book. I could schedule you in for. . . . next Thursday, at 1300 hours.”

“That won’t be necessary. I’m sure he’ll want to speak with me now. Just tell him it’s about the ARU.”

“Again, I’m sorry, Lt. but the admiral is very busy and–“

“ARU, ma’am. Please. He’ll see me.”

The receptionist finally gave in to his request, knowing full well she was going to get reprimanded by the admiral the next time he called her into his office. With a look of resignation, she dailed Roebuck’s office line. =^=I’m sorry to disturb you, sir, but there is a Lt. Remington here to see you. He said to mention the ARU. . . . yes, sir, A R U. . .yes, sir, right away.=^=

Turning back to Icarus, she said, “Adm. Roebuck will see-----“

But Icarus was already heading for the door. “Thanks, darlin’. I knew you could convince him to see me.”

He opened the door and strode confidently toward the desk on the other side of the room. “Admiral Roebuck, I’m Lt. jg. Remington, Starfleet Intelligence, and have I got an offer for you. . . “

Remington (future CIO)

The force of the door slamming shut at Remington’s back was sufficient to set some nearby papers airborne. Almost immediately, Admiral Roebuck was upon him, the usually handsome face contorted into a furious scowl.

“Who the hell do you think you are? Do the oaths and the allegiances that you took when joining Starfleet mean nothing to you at all? I’m going to presume that you using the ARU as a bargaining tool with which to gain an audience, suggests that you’re at least partially aware of its classified status? But you think nothing of yelling it out in public where any rookie crewman could hear it?”

“I take my oath VERY seriously, Admiral. That’s why I needed to see. Let’s be honest, Admiral, you and I both know 99% of the people in this building would think ARU stood for. . . Antiquated Refrigeration Unit or something of the sort.”

His anger unleashed, the Admiral returned to his desk and lowered himself slowly into the large, comfortable chair behind it, his eyes never once straying from Remington’s form. Reaching for a clear decanter and two glasses, he poured a small measure of blue liquor into each and then, raising one to the other man, used it to gesture towards another, vacant, seat facing his own.

“We didn’t classify the ARU for the hell of it, Lieutenant,” he spat out the rank, almost as if challenging the other to live up to it. “We did it for reasons of universal security. So whatever it is you think you know, that is worth putting the entire Federation and all of its members at risk, then it better be damned good!”

• Admiral Roebuck

“That’s the problem, sir, YOUR security concerning the ARU. Look, I’m just a lowly Intel officer, doing nothing but analyzing and decrypting messages. By now, I can do that in my sleep.. I know, I know, it’s important stuff, but, I believe I’m destined for something greater. . . .”

“Aren’t we all,” Roebuck muttered, sarcastically.

Taking a drink from the glass and sitting down, Icarus backtracked on his comments. “Let me start at the beginning, sir. About 6 months ago, I was filing some budgetary papers for Intel. Something didn’t look right. The numbers weren’t adding up, so when I took it to my supervisor he told not to worry about it, to just ‘let it go’. Like I said, I take my oath very seriously, so I continued to look into because something wasn’t geling My initial thought was that somewhere along the line someone was embezzling some funds, because funds from other Starfleet departments were being diverted somewhere else, but all these funds were going to the same place.”

This caught Roebuck’s attention. Placing his own glass down on the desk, the Admiral leaned forward and steepled his fingers under his chin. Partly because he believed it was a distinguished pose. Partly so that Remington would not see his hands shaking…

He took the file of papers and set them down on the Admiral’s desk. It’s all there, sir, everything I found. The long and short of it is, there was one name that kept popping up in my investigation. Who do you think that was?? Yup, Admiral Roebuck. Those are all my notes. All hand-written, kept in a safe-place. Those are copies by the way.”

Verbally, Roebuck offered nothing in reply. Not a word. not a movement. But Icarus would need no tricorder to detect the older man’s face turning pale.

“Sir, I know all about the ARU, and the RTF, and the secret star base, and the different levels of anomalies, and. . . the USS Leviathan.”

“Admiral, I’m not threatening you, I’m not going public with this information, but I want to be on the Leviathan. Sir, I NEED to be on the Leviathan. I’ve studied what their mission is. I’ve gone over the senior staff, and if I might add, Zachariah Cobb as the CO? Really? Not who would’ve been my first choice, but hey, I’m not an admiral. But, I was made for this posting, sir, not only because of what I know and can do, but there’s something personal at stake for me. Please, see to it I get assigned to the Leviathan, sir.”

Remington (not CIO, yet)

His fury this time was more measured, more controlled. But all the more menacing for that fact. Straightening in his seat, Roebuck’s scowl returned even deeper this time as he hissed, “How dare you. Zachariah Cobb was…is a great man who saved countless lives in the war. Including my own. He made sacrifices during that conflict the likes of which you couldn’t even imagine. And yet you come here and demand to be placed on his ship. In his crew. Without the faintest idea, it seems, of who you would truly be serving under?”

“Begging your pardon, Admiral, I didn’t mean to speak derogatorily of the man. His military career speaks for itself. His victories in the Dominion War are what legends are made of. I only meant that in his current state. . . . the stories of his career, that is a captain I would be proud to serve under.”

He got to his feet again and walked over to the window. Outside, civilians and officers of all rank strolled passed without a care in the world. They had no concept of these things that lurked out there, beyond the stars. These things capable of obliterating every living soul in this entire quadrant with the blink of an eye. No concept, either, of the risks taken by the brave men and women of the ARU, daily, in order to keep them safe. To keep them protected in a bubble of ignorance and hopeful optimism.

“You know all about the ARU and the RTF?” Roebuck echoed, turning back to face the other although maintaining the distance between them. “You may have read a handful of secret files but believe me when I tell you, Lieutenant, that you have no concept of the nightmare you are asking to be a part of. And for that reason alone I am tempted to acquiesce to your request.”

“I’m afraid I do, sir. I believe I experienced one of these anomalies first-hand when I was about 10 years old. During a storm, an anomaly, or some kind of vortex appeared and pulled both my parents into it. At that time, I didn’t know any better and though it was the Romulans coming to retrieve my mother. Only as I grew older, did I realize that the Tal’Shiar had nothing to do with their disappearance. That event, my discovering about the ARU and the Leviathon, getting into Intelligence. . . .all of this is coming together. It’s happening for a reason. . . “

Finally he returned to his seat and, for a few moments ignoring Icarus completely, he drained his glass, took a cursory look at the documents the other had provided and then tapped several commands into a watch-sized terminal on his wrist.

“Congratulations, Lieutenant,” he declared eventually, reclining back with the attitude of one whom had just regained control. “You have new orders it seems, as the new Chief Intelligence Officer of the USS Leviathan. I will arrange for a shuttle to transport you to the ship’s location within the hour. Naturally, due to the nature of this conversation, I can not allow you to leave this building until then. If you have any personal items you wish to accompany you then I shall send an assistant to retrieve them.”

Icarus released the breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding and his face split into a wide grin. “Understood, Admiral. Just some pictures and mementos. I’ll make a list.

He stood again and held out a hand, as if to congratulate the other, then finally added, “Oh and, I have two section 31 operatives en route to your last place of accommodation as we speak, where they will either retrieve the original copies of these files or begin to track them down using any means necessary. Or you could simply reveal the location now and save yourself and those close to you a great deal of trouble.”

• Admiral Roebuck

Icarus took the admiral’s hand and held on longer than normal.

“31? I suppose those guys will find everything anyway. They’re hidden in a false wall panel behind the replicator. Everything is there.” except for the other two copies I’ve hidden where not even 31 will find them.

Roebuck simply nodded, although Remington might begin, in that moment, to suspect that the two of them were not the only witnesses to this exchange.

“Not trying to push my luck here Admiral, but I do have one more request? I want to be on the RTF team. I can handle myself with weapons, and hand-to-hand. I have a high pain threshold, an Intel background, the balls to come in here confront you, and. . . if I get killed, well, that’s one less thing you’ll have to worry about, sir.”

Remington (now the CIO)

“Well now, that’s up to Captain Manhattan,” the Admiral shrugged, looking the newly-assigned Intelligence Chief up and down. “But I’d imagine he’s always in the market for some extra bodies.”

Roebuck moved to dismiss the other from his office, an assistant appearing in the doorway to lead Remington to the waiting area and then finally on to his shuttle. But at the last moment he turned back and added, somewhat mischievously, “And for your first couple of weeks, I’ll make sure you’re assigned to shadow one of the novel researchers. Getting your hands dirty with their current captives up close and personal will be as good an introduction for you as any. Dismissed.”

• Admiral Roebuck

OOC: Closing thread. Welcome onboard, officially, Terry! :D